There were a couple reasons why I created the attendance rule that you only need to attend half the game in order for it to count.

1) I worked for the San Francisco Giants in Candlestick Park as an intern for part of the 1997 season. I could only take a 2 hour lunch to watch the game which meant I could only watch around 6 innings before heading back to the office – still being able to hear fans cheer while I worked during the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.
2) Northwestern football games. When I was a freshman in 1994 (before Northwestern’s 1995 Rose Bowl run), we would tailgate in the parking lot until the 2nd quarter and then go into Dyche Stadium. Northwestern was 3-7-1 that season and most of the games were blowouts. Thus, we would leave the game early in the 4th quarter.

Yesterday was no exception to this Northwestern attendance practice. We arrived at Ryan Field about 15 minutes before the 11 am kickoff. We tailgated until noon and walked in Ryan Field with 7 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter. During the tailgate, my friends knew of people who had extra tickets so the Ultimate Sports Wife and I did not need buy tickets.

Tyrell Sutton rushed for 144 yards and C.J. Bacher threw three touchdown passes as Northwestern defeated the Syracuse Orangemen 30-10. After the game, we headed for the Purple Line so we could get to the Cubs game on time.